Oh my GRIEF. And stress before travelling.
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 11 February 2010 at 2/11/2010 12:47:00 pm.
Joy of owning a small business No. 436:
Finding PORN on the office printer and having to detective out WHOSE IT IS....
Luckily, after the obligatory group-beatdown, the culprit confessed. I will spare their image in the eyes of my 2 friends who read this, and keep their identity a secret but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE.... COME ON!!!! GET IT TOGETHER!!!! IF YOUR MARRIAGE IS SUFFERING DUE TO LACK OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE, DON'T DO YOUR DO-IT-YOURSELF RESEARCH ON YOUR OFFICE PC AND THEN CANCEL THE PRINTJOB HALFWAY THROUGH!!!
Luckily we're talking instructural manual-type-stuff here, and not.... but still.
So yes, the culprit confessed, The Mr. served up the confrontory talk with "this person", ending it on the "we're going to have to decide what we're going to do about this" note, mentioning that now his & my trip to Cape Town is probably going to have to be the venue for this debate on how to handle the situation (guilt!), and left it at that.
I will give my speech this afternoon or on Tuesday when I'm back in the office.
It will go something to the effect of:
"SINCE IT HAS BEEN MADE OBVIOUS TO THE DIRECTORS OF THIS COMPANY THAT REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH WE *THOUGHT* WE COULD TRUST EVEN THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY EMPLOYEE OF THIS OFFICE, YOU PEOPLE STILL WANT TO BEHAVE LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES..... WELL, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT, THEN PREPARE TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES FROM THIS POINT FORWARD."
"FROM NOW ON WE WILL CARRY OUT SPOT CHECKS ON INTERNET HISTORIES, EMAILS IN AND OUT, AS WELL AS DELETED MATERIALS. SHOULD WE FIND THAT HISTORIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED, RECYCLE BINS EMPTIED, OR OTHER COVERUP METHODS USED, WE WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE, AND WILL HANDLE YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY. MY CO-DIRECTOR AND I WILL BE INSTALLING PRINT COUNTERS ON ALL PRINTERS, AND CALL MONITORS ON THE TELEPHONE. YOU WILL BE CHARGED EVERY CENT OWED TO THIS COMPANY FOR EVERY LAST SHRED OF PAPER OR DROP OF INK USED FOR YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS. AT PRESENT, I AM TEMPTED TO CHARGE EACH ONE OF YOU FOR AN EXTRA COLOUR INK CARTRIDGE FOR THE LASER JET PRINTER, SEEING AS IT HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD THAT OUR EQUIPMENT IS HERE FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE."
"ADDITIONALLY, SINCE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT WORKERS, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT MANAGEMENT MUST BE PRESENT AT ALL TIMES TO BABYSIT YOU DURING THE HOURS THAT YOU 'REQUIRE' TO STAY LATE OR START EARLY IN ORDER TO 'FINISH YOUR WORK'. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY WE CAN NOT TRUST WHAT GOES ON HERE IN THIS OFFICE DURING THE TIMES THAT WE ARE NOT AROUND. THIS RESULTS IN AN EMBARGO ON ANY OVERTIME YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH, MEANING IF YOU DO NOT GET YOUR WORK DONE BETWEEN THE HOURS THAT YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO BE HERE, YOU ARE FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, IN DEBT TO THIS COMPANY AND WILL BE ASKED TO MAKE UP YOUR WORKING TIME AT THE DISGRESSION OF THE DIRECTORS, WHEN AND WHERE THEY INSTRUCT YOU TO DO SO. IT APPEARS THAT WE NOW MUST ALSO ALTER *OUR* SCHEDULES, TO ENSURE THAT ONE OF US IS HERE AT 7:30AM EVERY MORNING, TO BABYSIT YOU. THANKS. WE REALLY APPRECIATE THAT."
"I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY GOING ON HERE IN MY (OUR) ABSENCE, THAT I AM TEMPTED TO PUNISH YOU ALL BY CANCELLING OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER IN MARCH. HOWEVER, I REALIZE THAT THE CULPRIT HAS APOLOGIZED TO THE REST OF YOU, AND AM SURE THAT I SHOULD REFRAIN FROM PUNISHING THE GROUP FURTHER, DUE TO THIS PERSON'S STUPIDITY. HOWEVER! LET ME REMIND YOU THAT THE FIRST PERSON WHO SO MUCH AS EVEN *THINKS* ABOUT MAKING ONE PERSONAL PHONE CALL, PRINTING OUT ONE SINGLE PHOTOGRAPH ON ANY PRINTER IN HERE, OR OPENING UP ONE SINGLE NON-WORK RELATED WEBSITE ON ONE OF THESE COMPUTERS, WILL FIND THEMSELVES NOT ONLY IN POSSESSION OF AN INVOICE ON BEHALF OF THIS COMPANY FOR RESOURCES SQUANDERED, BUT ALSO FOR TIME WASTED AS BILLABLE HOURS ON TOP OF THAT. A WRITTEN WARNING WILL ALSO BE INCLUDED. AS YOU KNOW, DUE TO LABOUR LAWS IN THIS COUNTRY, TERMINATION IS ACCEPTABLE AFTER 2 WRITTEN WARNINGS. WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO DO SO."
"SO IN CONCLUSION! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. WE ARE NOT MESSING AROUND ANYMORE. PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE A SHIFT IN ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONAL FREEDOMES AROUND THIS OFFICE, IN THE FUTURE. IF THIS UPSETS YOU, YOU ALL KNOW WHO TO THANK. THAT IS ALL. *GOOD DAY, SIRS!!*"
I think that pretty much sums it up.... We probably wouldn't be so furious if it hadn't happened the way it happened. How? Welllll.... The Mr. and R. (visiting biofuels expert consultant, working on The Mr.'s project that he is running) both sent print jobs to the color printer this morning. They were standing around said printer having a chat, when 10 pages of nekkit lovers start flowing out (again - picture kama sutra type stuff here... nothing twisted or XXX rated or anything)... LUCKILY, The Mr. catches the papers and R. doesn't see anything because he's *just* moved away from the machine. CAN YOU IMAGINE!??
As The Mr. explained to Culprit during their man-to-man about this, not only would this have embarassed us as a company in front of this highly respected visitor, who knows what kind of viruses he is bringing into our network, what kind of kiddie or animal or whatever type filth he could've clicked on that would've sent red flags up in Big Brother's House and sent the internet cops after us?? Not to mention that our internet service provider, who is a FRIEND OF OURS can monitor every page visited from their end??? WTF!??!
Anyway, it's been an interesting day so far.
Not to mention I'm supposed to be getting ready for our trip tomorrow morning!!!
But now, The Mr. tells me we all have to go over to this rich Indian guy's house for a big fat dinner tonight, because he's hosting The Mr.'s research team and everyone HAS to go. Including me & the JuJu Lady. And it STARTS at 8:30pm. GREAT. I've gotta get paperwork ready, I've gotta pack, I've gotta do a bunch of CRAP and now I've got no time to do it in!! AGH!
But I have to support The Mr. here. He has done a great job this week of hosting a conference/workshop, a bunch of visiting experts, and shuffling them all around, lecturing, demonstrating, presenting, writing, and just generally TCB for this huge project that he has landed us all by himself. He is a management machine this week. True, I haven't seen him at all this week because of it. True, it's so stressful he can't sleep at night. True, I ended up entertaining 5 visiting scientists from India & Swaziland on my verandah last night drinking my beer and eating my peanuts at 8pm because of it. And now, it looks like I've gotta mobilize our family for our trip all by myself between the hours of what, midnight and 2am this evening?? Because of a dinner?? But whatever. I can do it. I'm not a hundred years old or something. I'm just gonna need some luck and some super-organized lists.
In the meantime, I'm just looking forward to seeing the ocean out my hotel window while eating room service food in bed, sometime within the next 48 hours. ahhh bliss.
Finding PORN on the office printer and having to detective out WHOSE IT IS....
Luckily, after the obligatory group-beatdown, the culprit confessed. I will spare their image in the eyes of my 2 friends who read this, and keep their identity a secret but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE.... COME ON!!!! GET IT TOGETHER!!!! IF YOUR MARRIAGE IS SUFFERING DUE TO LACK OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE, DON'T DO YOUR DO-IT-YOURSELF RESEARCH ON YOUR OFFICE PC AND THEN CANCEL THE PRINTJOB HALFWAY THROUGH!!!
Luckily we're talking instructural manual-type-stuff here, and not.... but still.
So yes, the culprit confessed, The Mr. served up the confrontory talk with "this person", ending it on the "we're going to have to decide what we're going to do about this" note, mentioning that now his & my trip to Cape Town is probably going to have to be the venue for this debate on how to handle the situation (guilt!), and left it at that.
I will give my speech this afternoon or on Tuesday when I'm back in the office.
It will go something to the effect of:
"SINCE IT HAS BEEN MADE OBVIOUS TO THE DIRECTORS OF THIS COMPANY THAT REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH WE *THOUGHT* WE COULD TRUST EVEN THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY EMPLOYEE OF THIS OFFICE, YOU PEOPLE STILL WANT TO BEHAVE LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES..... WELL, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT, THEN PREPARE TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES FROM THIS POINT FORWARD."
"FROM NOW ON WE WILL CARRY OUT SPOT CHECKS ON INTERNET HISTORIES, EMAILS IN AND OUT, AS WELL AS DELETED MATERIALS. SHOULD WE FIND THAT HISTORIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED, RECYCLE BINS EMPTIED, OR OTHER COVERUP METHODS USED, WE WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE, AND WILL HANDLE YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY. MY CO-DIRECTOR AND I WILL BE INSTALLING PRINT COUNTERS ON ALL PRINTERS, AND CALL MONITORS ON THE TELEPHONE. YOU WILL BE CHARGED EVERY CENT OWED TO THIS COMPANY FOR EVERY LAST SHRED OF PAPER OR DROP OF INK USED FOR YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS. AT PRESENT, I AM TEMPTED TO CHARGE EACH ONE OF YOU FOR AN EXTRA COLOUR INK CARTRIDGE FOR THE LASER JET PRINTER, SEEING AS IT HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD THAT OUR EQUIPMENT IS HERE FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE."
"ADDITIONALLY, SINCE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT WORKERS, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT MANAGEMENT MUST BE PRESENT AT ALL TIMES TO BABYSIT YOU DURING THE HOURS THAT YOU 'REQUIRE' TO STAY LATE OR START EARLY IN ORDER TO 'FINISH YOUR WORK'. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY WE CAN NOT TRUST WHAT GOES ON HERE IN THIS OFFICE DURING THE TIMES THAT WE ARE NOT AROUND. THIS RESULTS IN AN EMBARGO ON ANY OVERTIME YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH, MEANING IF YOU DO NOT GET YOUR WORK DONE BETWEEN THE HOURS THAT YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO BE HERE, YOU ARE FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, IN DEBT TO THIS COMPANY AND WILL BE ASKED TO MAKE UP YOUR WORKING TIME AT THE DISGRESSION OF THE DIRECTORS, WHEN AND WHERE THEY INSTRUCT YOU TO DO SO. IT APPEARS THAT WE NOW MUST ALSO ALTER *OUR* SCHEDULES, TO ENSURE THAT ONE OF US IS HERE AT 7:30AM EVERY MORNING, TO BABYSIT YOU. THANKS. WE REALLY APPRECIATE THAT."
"I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY GOING ON HERE IN MY (OUR) ABSENCE, THAT I AM TEMPTED TO PUNISH YOU ALL BY CANCELLING OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER IN MARCH. HOWEVER, I REALIZE THAT THE CULPRIT HAS APOLOGIZED TO THE REST OF YOU, AND AM SURE THAT I SHOULD REFRAIN FROM PUNISHING THE GROUP FURTHER, DUE TO THIS PERSON'S STUPIDITY. HOWEVER!
"SO IN CONCLUSION! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. WE ARE NOT MESSING AROUND ANYMORE. PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE A SHIFT IN ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONAL FREEDOMES AROUND THIS OFFICE, IN THE FUTURE. IF THIS UPSETS YOU, YOU ALL KNOW WHO TO THANK. THAT IS ALL. *GOOD DAY, SIRS!!*"
I think that pretty much sums it up.... We probably wouldn't be so furious if it hadn't happened the way it happened. How? Welllll.... The Mr. and R. (visiting biofuels expert consultant, working on The Mr.'s project that he is running) both sent print jobs to the color printer this morning. They were standing around said printer having a chat, when 10 pages of nekkit lovers start flowing out (again - picture kama sutra type stuff here... nothing twisted or XXX rated or anything)... LUCKILY, The Mr. catches the papers and R. doesn't see anything because he's *just* moved away from the machine. CAN YOU IMAGINE!??
As The Mr. explained to Culprit during their man-to-man about this, not only would this have embarassed us as a company in front of this highly respected visitor, who knows what kind of viruses he is bringing into our network, what kind of kiddie or animal or whatever type filth he could've clicked on that would've sent red flags up in Big Brother's House and sent the internet cops after us?? Not to mention that our internet service provider, who is a FRIEND OF OURS can monitor every page visited from their end??? WTF!??!
Anyway, it's been an interesting day so far.
Not to mention I'm supposed to be getting ready for our trip tomorrow morning!!!
But now, The Mr. tells me we all have to go over to this rich Indian guy's house for a big fat dinner tonight, because he's hosting The Mr.'s research team and everyone HAS to go. Including me & the JuJu Lady. And it STARTS at 8:30pm. GREAT. I've gotta get paperwork ready, I've gotta pack, I've gotta do a bunch of CRAP and now I've got no time to do it in!! AGH!
But I have to support The Mr. here. He has done a great job this week of hosting a conference/workshop, a bunch of visiting experts, and shuffling them all around, lecturing, demonstrating, presenting, writing, and just generally TCB for this huge project that he has landed us all by himself. He is a management machine this week. True, I haven't seen him at all this week because of it. True, it's so stressful he can't sleep at night. True, I ended up entertaining 5 visiting scientists from India & Swaziland on my verandah last night drinking my beer and eating my peanuts at 8pm because of it. And now, it looks like I've gotta mobilize our family for our trip all by myself between the hours of what, midnight and 2am this evening?? Because of a dinner?? But whatever. I can do it. I'm not a hundred years old or something. I'm just gonna need some luck and some super-organized lists.
In the meantime, I'm just looking forward to seeing the ocean out my hotel window while eating room service food in bed, sometime within the next 48 hours. ahhh bliss.
Labels: trip planning, work
This place is a madhouse!
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 29 January 2010 at 1/29/2010 09:52:00 am.
We are putting together our "Pièce de résistance" as a company today and tomorrow (one of the things that has been keeping us up at nights, sending us to Zambia, sending us to the loony bin, etc etc for about the last 4 months) - our biggest project ever as a little company. It's a major African Devpt Bank funded conundrum between 2 countries who can't agree - a huge EIA for a giant bridge that will be built across the Zambezi river, including a One-stop border post between the countries of BW and ZAM, and pedestrian underpasses for elephants crossing below deck, etc etc. Whatever. Hundreds of pages have been written and figures drawn and drawings figured and what-what-what, and the Client has to have a draft tomorrow.
So it's a madhouse around here. But almost over.
Anyway I was just thinking, as I was listening to this week's This American Life podcast - I'll remember 2009 as the year I discovered podcasts. I downloaded a TAL episode when we were back in the US for xmas, and The Mr. and I played it in the car for the first time on the way back to BW from Joburg after landing back on African soil. Every week since then I've happily collected my TAL, & All Songs Considered podcasts, which have now also over time blossemed into episodes of Onion News Broadcast, Mark Twain stories, Banjo video tips, Car Talk, and some others which have came and went. I got kind of nostalgic for 2009 just there for a second - don't know why.... if anything listening to all those NPR type broadcasts makes me think about how nice it would be to live in the US again at some stage and have all these things at my disposal at the flick of a button. Well anyway, in my brief spirit of whimsy, I got online and finally got around to donating 10 bucks to TAL, since after all, I am thriving off their bandwidth and giving nothing in return.
OK so getting back to Crazy E from DC (see 2 blogs ago), the other day guess who sends The Mr. a message pleading with him for all this crap? Yeah. Well I told him "it's in your court now, pal", but he has the same annoyances I do. On the other hand she did bring up a good point in her email of request to him (which she so politely managed to feign interest in our life in a few sentences within, good for her. A wee personal touch helps, as I was saying) - that good point being "it's not anything that you wouldn't already have to fill in on your entry card into the US when you fly in to visit". True. For the most part. Albeit I don't remember "name of employer" being one of those questions. But I digress!
The very next day, SuperFriend and Personal Legal Advisor Extrordianaire, SheofDC wrote me an email after reading my blog saying "that's all BS! She obviously can't read the fed govt application - she only needs that stuff if you work for a foreign govt!" (paraphrasing, of course). Which then took me from "over it" to "annoyed again!!!" But also teaching me a valuable lesson: Get this issue off the table already before it drives me insane!!! (Which is SO anti-2010, yo!) So I let myself have a wee rant to the boys at the office during coffee time, the next day, got it all out, re-hashed it for the last time, and have dually moved on, not even asking The Mr. whether or not he's going to comply with her orders. Gone & forgotten.
So this weekend promises to be interesting, if nothing else. Mainly based on the fact that I received a phone call from Frau Meister (the 74y.o. violinist from my geriatric quartet) instructing me to come to her 75th bday party, and to bring something to eat, and my viola. With which we will play a few movements of something or other for the other party attendees. Then there will be a meal (of the food we all bring). There will be some drinks. Then, she continued, she will put on a video tape of a famous violinist, und ve vill watch it! OK!! So that's what my posse is doing between the hours of 5 and 8pm on saturday anyway! Whew! No more wondering, there!
I made the mistake of, when I was repeating my instructions (for confirmation & understanding, of course) back over the phone, saying "something to drink, and something snacky" while going back over what I would bring. "NO! Not snacky!" This was a MEAL we're talking about here. As in pot-luck dinner.... not snacks!! OK! OK! Got it!!
I make fun of Frau Meister only because I do really love her. She just is "that way". But hey, she's like a 75 year old 5-foot-tall Quaker lady and in very poor health and weighs about 60lbs (not to mention an amazing violinist) so really I mustn't give her too hard a time. I have to say, the last time I moaned about being "summoned" over to play Dvorak just before Xmas and I had been so flat out busy and didn't have time to practice - I went in with a bad attitude, and ended up playing really well, and enjoying it thoroughly, and then having mega residual guilt because I had been so mean about being summoned in the first place.
OH speaking of playing can I just say I CAN NOT WAIT for July - - - as I have had no one to jam with (banjo) since Jeremy died last year, I am freaking DYING to have some sort of social playing session with ANYONE... seriously, my teeth are itching and my skin is crawling and I find myself desperately playing along to my iPod. I'm so freaking musically lonely!!! aghghhhhh. So I mentioned this to Dave (back home) and he said not only would he organize a giant Hometown Basement Concert for Bangladesh with all our old buddies (in Gary's basement) for my homecoming, would I also sit in on banjo with his band for a few tunes at their gig at the Winery on the 2nd!?!!? How much louder can you type "HELL TO THE YEAH"!!?!?!
Well, gotta git on with this deadline now so that's all.
So it's a madhouse around here. But almost over.
Anyway I was just thinking, as I was listening to this week's This American Life podcast - I'll remember 2009 as the year I discovered podcasts. I downloaded a TAL episode when we were back in the US for xmas, and The Mr. and I played it in the car for the first time on the way back to BW from Joburg after landing back on African soil. Every week since then I've happily collected my TAL, & All Songs Considered podcasts, which have now also over time blossemed into episodes of Onion News Broadcast, Mark Twain stories, Banjo video tips, Car Talk, and some others which have came and went. I got kind of nostalgic for 2009 just there for a second - don't know why.... if anything listening to all those NPR type broadcasts makes me think about how nice it would be to live in the US again at some stage and have all these things at my disposal at the flick of a button. Well anyway, in my brief spirit of whimsy, I got online and finally got around to donating 10 bucks to TAL, since after all, I am thriving off their bandwidth and giving nothing in return.
OK so getting back to Crazy E from DC (see 2 blogs ago), the other day guess who sends The Mr. a message pleading with him for all this crap? Yeah. Well I told him "it's in your court now, pal", but he has the same annoyances I do. On the other hand she did bring up a good point in her email of request to him (which she so politely managed to feign interest in our life in a few sentences within, good for her. A wee personal touch helps, as I was saying) - that good point being "it's not anything that you wouldn't already have to fill in on your entry card into the US when you fly in to visit". True. For the most part. Albeit I don't remember "name of employer" being one of those questions. But I digress!
The very next day, SuperFriend and Personal Legal Advisor Extrordianaire, SheofDC wrote me an email after reading my blog saying "that's all BS! She obviously can't read the fed govt application - she only needs that stuff if you work for a foreign govt!" (paraphrasing, of course). Which then took me from "over it" to "annoyed again!!!" But also teaching me a valuable lesson: Get this issue off the table already before it drives me insane!!! (Which is SO anti-2010, yo!) So I let myself have a wee rant to the boys at the office during coffee time, the next day, got it all out, re-hashed it for the last time, and have dually moved on, not even asking The Mr. whether or not he's going to comply with her orders. Gone & forgotten.
So this weekend promises to be interesting, if nothing else. Mainly based on the fact that I received a phone call from Frau Meister (the 74y.o. violinist from my geriatric quartet) instructing me to come to her 75th bday party, and to bring something to eat, and my viola. With which we will play a few movements of something or other for the other party attendees. Then there will be a meal (of the food we all bring). There will be some drinks. Then, she continued, she will put on a video tape of a famous violinist, und ve vill watch it! OK!! So that's what my posse is doing between the hours of 5 and 8pm on saturday anyway! Whew! No more wondering, there!
I made the mistake of, when I was repeating my instructions (for confirmation & understanding, of course) back over the phone, saying "something to drink, and something snacky" while going back over what I would bring. "NO! Not snacky!" This was a MEAL we're talking about here. As in pot-luck dinner.... not snacks!! OK! OK! Got it!!
I make fun of Frau Meister only because I do really love her. She just is "that way". But hey, she's like a 75 year old 5-foot-tall Quaker lady and in very poor health and weighs about 60lbs (not to mention an amazing violinist) so really I mustn't give her too hard a time. I have to say, the last time I moaned about being "summoned" over to play Dvorak just before Xmas and I had been so flat out busy and didn't have time to practice - I went in with a bad attitude, and ended up playing really well, and enjoying it thoroughly, and then having mega residual guilt because I had been so mean about being summoned in the first place.
OH speaking of playing can I just say I CAN NOT WAIT for July - - - as I have had no one to jam with (banjo) since Jeremy died last year, I am freaking DYING to have some sort of social playing session with ANYONE... seriously, my teeth are itching and my skin is crawling and I find myself desperately playing along to my iPod. I'm so freaking musically lonely!!! aghghhhhh. So I mentioned this to Dave (back home) and he said not only would he organize a giant Hometown Basement Concert for Bangladesh with all our old buddies (in Gary's basement) for my homecoming, would I also sit in on banjo with his band for a few tunes at their gig at the Winery on the 2nd!?!!? How much louder can you type "HELL TO THE YEAH"!!?!?!
Well, gotta git on with this deadline now so that's all.
That's enough jive from these tonsils of mine
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 21 January 2010 at 1/21/2010 09:40:00 am.
What is UP with my throat these days?!?!
The infection that started my downward health spiral around new years was in my throat, and now just a mere week after I was feeling back at 100%, I've got some other jive-talkin sore throat that I swear feels like my tonsils are so swollen that they're touching each other!
But it isn't stopping me, nor CAN it stop me, because I'm on a serious deadline for work as well as too freakin busy to stop and dose myself with anything other than tea. If anyone were to ask "how are you this fine day?" they would hear the word "BUSY!" trailing off in the distance behind me, in my 100mph wake.
Tuesday we had to wake up at the crack ass of dawn to go fetch the inlaws at the airport and then it was straight into the office for me, til something stupid like 6:45pm, then home, greet inlaws, feed inlaws, do some more proofreading for work, and hit the sack. Then Wednesday (y'day) it was up at the crack ass of dawn again to rush to the airport again, and fly up to M-town for a day in the 300 degrees and sand, doing inspections. Not to mention both flights included proofreading The Mr's giant report that he's neck-deep in, instead of my normal relaxing & beer drinking. Then immediately upon arrival back in G-city, I had to do another inspection (after hours) at the airport and finally got home around 7 or something - and the same fun and games again. Feed the baby, feed the inlaws, play cards with the inlaws, jump in the pool for 3 minutes, go to bed.
Now today I'm back at the office, deadline-deadline-deadline, rush-rush-rush, etc, and followed by Animal Peeps committee meeting at 6, HOPEFULLY out of there before 9, home, inlaws, eat, bed. OH the fun we're having around here!
In the spirit of 2010 I must say I'm glad to have inlaws who are more than willing to babysit and will be cooking dinner for us tonight, and are only staying til Monday. And have been on very good behaviour since they arrived. My MIL is really good with The Joolz.... good thing too since she's raised 6 kids....!!!
OK there's my break gone.
I really need to rent some hours in the day to do some trip planning!! Where can I get some hours?? Seriously. Hours?!?
The infection that started my downward health spiral around new years was in my throat, and now just a mere week after I was feeling back at 100%, I've got some other jive-talkin sore throat that I swear feels like my tonsils are so swollen that they're touching each other!
But it isn't stopping me, nor CAN it stop me, because I'm on a serious deadline for work as well as too freakin busy to stop and dose myself with anything other than tea. If anyone were to ask "how are you this fine day?" they would hear the word "BUSY!" trailing off in the distance behind me, in my 100mph wake.
Tuesday we had to wake up at the crack ass of dawn to go fetch the inlaws at the airport and then it was straight into the office for me, til something stupid like 6:45pm, then home, greet inlaws, feed inlaws, do some more proofreading for work, and hit the sack. Then Wednesday (y'day) it was up at the crack ass of dawn again to rush to the airport again, and fly up to M-town for a day in the 300 degrees and sand, doing inspections. Not to mention both flights included proofreading The Mr's giant report that he's neck-deep in, instead of my normal relaxing & beer drinking. Then immediately upon arrival back in G-city, I had to do another inspection (after hours) at the airport and finally got home around 7 or something - and the same fun and games again. Feed the baby, feed the inlaws, play cards with the inlaws, jump in the pool for 3 minutes, go to bed.
Now today I'm back at the office, deadline-deadline-deadline, rush-rush-rush, etc, and followed by Animal Peeps committee meeting at 6, HOPEFULLY out of there before 9, home, inlaws, eat, bed. OH the fun we're having around here!
In the spirit of 2010 I must say I'm glad to have inlaws who are more than willing to babysit and will be cooking dinner for us tonight, and are only staying til Monday. And have been on very good behaviour since they arrived. My MIL is really good with The Joolz.... good thing too since she's raised 6 kids....!!!
OK there's my break gone.
I really need to rent some hours in the day to do some trip planning!! Where can I get some hours?? Seriously. Hours?!?
Labels: work
Too Much Damn Cake!!
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 12 October 2009 at 10/12/2009 01:19:00 pm.
Cake, cake, cake. That's all there is out there... nothin' but a big bunch of cake!
This weekend was great but i think i gained 2kg. And didn't exercise at all. Well except for gym on friday. But anyway...
Greek night on saturday night was fantastic - we sat with some other couples from the Hash, saw a bunch of people there we know, and ate a bunch of delicious food, cut a rug on the dance floor, broke some plates, and listened to Mr. Bouzouki play his li'l heart out. Oh and the belly dancing girls (to which there is no Greek relevance whatsoever, but they were there) were quite entertaining. The best bit was that there was free babysitting on the premises and the JooJoo Lady had the time of her life getting pawed by a bunch of clucky 5-year old "big girls" and 2 babysitter ladies who she charmed the pants off of and got held all night long. I saw a bunch of my clients there and that was weird because obviously they were getting loaded and that was just awkward but hey, now I have the mental image of them shaking their booties on the dance floor to take to all those meetings with me from now on. There was baklava. mmmmm....
Sunday we had to be up at 6 (BALLS!) to get to the Animal Peeps walk-a-thon and work there til 11 or so, which was fine, because given our disability (the Joo) we got the prized station that is the registration table, along with Soo who's 9 months preggers, so that was less work and more fun than flipping sausages or corralling kindergartners or project managing a bunch of bouncing dogs. And of course as is with all of our Animal Peeps events, there was coffee and cake. lotttts of cake.
Then it was straight over to our swedish friends' daughter's 1-year-old birthday party.... now that was bizarre. A bunch of adults our age who have kids older than the Joo, having brunch and cake and champagne in the back yard while the bunch of kids run around. It wasn't bad, it was nice, but damn, I found myself sitting there thinking: "holy shit. This is it. This is what *parents* do now. This is what *I* do now..." WOW. Talk about a freak out. Up until now we would've skipped these kind of things whenever we're invited. But now this it. This is the thing you do. Kiddie parties. Luckily all the adults were scandinavian types who were very cool, friendly, and very funny and totally sociable and had somehow managed amongst the lot of them, to raise extremely well-behaved kids. The whole time that we were there, none of the younglings pissed me off or spilled anything on me and to be honest even in the small space that was the townhouse, I didnt even really notice them at all - they were all out in the communal playground area doing their kiddie thing & not bothering me at all. The Joo sat nicely in her Bumbo next to the birthday girl (the youngest 2 there) until it was time for her nap, at which time she promptly went to sleep whereever I could find a soft place for her to lay down upstairs, and that was that. After it was time for her to wake up, she sat some more and flirted with everyone there until the cake was eaten and it was time to go.
Oh yes, there was a treasure hunt. An adult + kid treasure hunt. I was skeptical at first, but I put on my game face and we plowed our way through it. Swedes & Danes are funny that way. It was all very american in the way that it was a party and there were "organized happenings". Like there was also a sing-a-long there at one point too. Very interesting. I still question the relevance for a 1-year-old though. I mean H. (the birthday girl) is only 6 months older than the Joo. I can catagorically state that she didn't have a clue what the hell was going on, so it was obviously a THING for the adults, not her. Which I am not a fan of. But on the other hand, I'm remaining positive about this stuff - all in all I really like the crowd that was there, so I just take it for what it is: a party for the parents, celebrating the successful survival of 1 year with a kid. Hell, what am I talking about.... if they're serving champagne, you could invite me to a 3-hour college calculus exam and I'll be happy as Larry!
But dang, I think 4 different cakes is a little excessive for a birthday party.
We got home yesterday at like 4pm and were just so flat out wrecked from the weekend (and of course I didnt get any work or studying done) that we took a nap, and then it was like - bang - dinner, shower, read a little, bed. The end. Where the hell did the weekend go??
Tomorrow the Mr. is leaving me for Zambia for 3 days & 2 nights, for this next big project we stumbled into. Again I curse! what is it with this year?! We go years without having to be apart overnight, and then all of a sudden in one swift 3-month period, it happens twice. I curse my job! And I have to be in Maun for work all day Wednesday, so the Joo is going to have to stay with the maid, and then Thursday I have my new mindfulness course, and he doesn't get back til late at night, so she'll go to uncle Leto's house for a few hours. Luckily tomorrow night Soo has invited me over for dinner (sympathy work-widow dinner.... she has to go through it all the time) so me & the kid will go over after work and play & eat over there. That will be nice. The Joo loves going over to Soo & Mx's place because they've got the whole joint kitted out for this kid that they're about to drop.... TO THE NINES, MAN.... it's like a bleedin' FAO Schwartz over there... and has been for oh 7 months now or thereabouts.... makes our place look like a corporate waiting room. But that's good. I want The Joo to believe that she grew up in the ghetto so that she can appreciate the finer things in life as she grows to accummulate them on her own nickel. HA!
This weekend was great but i think i gained 2kg. And didn't exercise at all. Well except for gym on friday. But anyway...
Greek night on saturday night was fantastic - we sat with some other couples from the Hash, saw a bunch of people there we know, and ate a bunch of delicious food, cut a rug on the dance floor, broke some plates, and listened to Mr. Bouzouki play his li'l heart out. Oh and the belly dancing girls (to which there is no Greek relevance whatsoever, but they were there) were quite entertaining. The best bit was that there was free babysitting on the premises and the JooJoo Lady had the time of her life getting pawed by a bunch of clucky 5-year old "big girls" and 2 babysitter ladies who she charmed the pants off of and got held all night long. I saw a bunch of my clients there and that was weird because obviously they were getting loaded and that was just awkward but hey, now I have the mental image of them shaking their booties on the dance floor to take to all those meetings with me from now on. There was baklava. mmmmm....
Sunday we had to be up at 6 (BALLS!) to get to the Animal Peeps walk-a-thon and work there til 11 or so, which was fine, because given our disability (the Joo) we got the prized station that is the registration table, along with Soo who's 9 months preggers, so that was less work and more fun than flipping sausages or corralling kindergartners or project managing a bunch of bouncing dogs. And of course as is with all of our Animal Peeps events, there was coffee and cake. lotttts of cake.
Then it was straight over to our swedish friends' daughter's 1-year-old birthday party.... now that was bizarre. A bunch of adults our age who have kids older than the Joo, having brunch and cake and champagne in the back yard while the bunch of kids run around. It wasn't bad, it was nice, but damn, I found myself sitting there thinking: "holy shit. This is it. This is what *parents* do now. This is what *I* do now..." WOW. Talk about a freak out. Up until now we would've skipped these kind of things whenever we're invited. But now this it. This is the thing you do. Kiddie parties. Luckily all the adults were scandinavian types who were very cool, friendly, and very funny and totally sociable and had somehow managed amongst the lot of them, to raise extremely well-behaved kids. The whole time that we were there, none of the younglings pissed me off or spilled anything on me and to be honest even in the small space that was the townhouse, I didnt even really notice them at all - they were all out in the communal playground area doing their kiddie thing & not bothering me at all. The Joo sat nicely in her Bumbo next to the birthday girl (the youngest 2 there) until it was time for her nap, at which time she promptly went to sleep whereever I could find a soft place for her to lay down upstairs, and that was that. After it was time for her to wake up, she sat some more and flirted with everyone there until the cake was eaten and it was time to go.
Oh yes, there was a treasure hunt. An adult + kid treasure hunt. I was skeptical at first, but I put on my game face and we plowed our way through it. Swedes & Danes are funny that way. It was all very american in the way that it was a party and there were "organized happenings". Like there was also a sing-a-long there at one point too. Very interesting. I still question the relevance for a 1-year-old though. I mean H. (the birthday girl) is only 6 months older than the Joo. I can catagorically state that she didn't have a clue what the hell was going on, so it was obviously a THING for the adults, not her. Which I am not a fan of. But on the other hand, I'm remaining positive about this stuff - all in all I really like the crowd that was there, so I just take it for what it is: a party for the parents, celebrating the successful survival of 1 year with a kid. Hell, what am I talking about.... if they're serving champagne, you could invite me to a 3-hour college calculus exam and I'll be happy as Larry!
But dang, I think 4 different cakes is a little excessive for a birthday party.
We got home yesterday at like 4pm and were just so flat out wrecked from the weekend (and of course I didnt get any work or studying done) that we took a nap, and then it was like - bang - dinner, shower, read a little, bed. The end. Where the hell did the weekend go??
Tomorrow the Mr. is leaving me for Zambia for 3 days & 2 nights, for this next big project we stumbled into. Again I curse! what is it with this year?! We go years without having to be apart overnight, and then all of a sudden in one swift 3-month period, it happens twice. I curse my job! And I have to be in Maun for work all day Wednesday, so the Joo is going to have to stay with the maid, and then Thursday I have my new mindfulness course, and he doesn't get back til late at night, so she'll go to uncle Leto's house for a few hours. Luckily tomorrow night Soo has invited me over for dinner (sympathy work-widow dinner.... she has to go through it all the time) so me & the kid will go over after work and play & eat over there. That will be nice. The Joo loves going over to Soo & Mx's place because they've got the whole joint kitted out for this kid that they're about to drop.... TO THE NINES, MAN.... it's like a bleedin' FAO Schwartz over there... and has been for oh 7 months now or thereabouts.... makes our place look like a corporate waiting room. But that's good. I want The Joo to believe that she grew up in the ghetto so that she can appreciate the finer things in life as she grows to accummulate them on her own nickel. HA!
Labels: animal peeps, mis amigos, The Mr., work
Weekend Wasting!
4 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 07 September 2009 at 9/07/2009 09:20:00 am.
The same thing keeps happening! What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and each time expecting a different result or something like that??? Now that I'm working from home every other day, it seems I get the days when Emelda is here cleaning. And every morning I put coffee in the coffee pot to brew and lo and behold every time, it's finished and calling me JUST as she's starting to mop the kitchen floor!! AGH! Torturous! I have to wait for up to 20 minutes before I can go in and collect the perky goodness. That is just about the worst.
Well what's also the worst is this blasted weekend, which, the majority of was centred around this *%&$ wedding (well it wasn't even a wedding, it was a RECEPTION, but the couple has been referring to it as a "wedding" for the past 8 months or whatever - even sending out "wedding invitations" etc etc. I'm sorry, but if you want to call it a wedding, there HAS to be a ceremony. Some dude or gal has got to get up and say the words "I now pronounce you husband and wife" or at least "you may kiss the bride", etc. This, God help me, was nothing more than speeches and a dinner and dancing. Is that a reception or a wedding? I thought so. Not to mention that they went to the church and did the church thing earlier in the week. Now THAT would've been the wedding. Oh and dont forget the "traditional wedding" that happened last month. The one where cattle and suits and blankets and MONEY were exchanged for Jr.'s right to marry Mma Finance.)
OK so first we had to wake up early ON SATURDAY (sin!) b/c A.) the Mr. had to work (poor thing - uber pressure on his projects at work these days) and B.) I had to go buy a present and some wedding-outfit accessories and the like, wrapping paper, a card, etc etc etc. Then it was all rush, rush, rush, to get home, get dressed, wrap pressie, eat SOMETHING (thank GOD we did, after what later would ensue), bundle up Miss Baby JuJu Fartypants, and whisk her off to the Animal Peeps Shelter where we would meet Soo (who was babysitting for the night), do the baby-drop, and then drive alllllllllllll the way to as far away as one can geographically get (from the shelter), where the "NOT a WEDDING" was happening. The invitation said "4pm". We were there at 4pm. No one else was. So we went to the restaurant and had 2 glasses of wine. By the time Leto&TT got there (again thank God they at least came) it was 5. We got on one of the open-air safari vehicles and were driven through the dust and wind to what was called on the invitation "the picnic place for finger foods and snacks". OK. So where were the "finger foods" and "snacks"? Yes, there were potato chips. And peanuts. And some bottles of water. And no bride, and no groom. Luckily there was Simon & his gal. So the 6 of us sat and sort-of ate chippies and talked about all the things we could POSSIBLY talk about, while all the other lost-looking guests sat around and did the same, and watched some hippos and crocs in the lake.
NEARLY 2 HOURS LATER.... AND WELL PAST SUNSET....we started getting shuttled up to the main venue which was on top of a mountain in an open-air conference centre. Where the "NOT a WEDDING SO STOP CALLING IT THAT" was being held. In the windy season. Sooooo as luck would happen, Simon & his gal get seperated for us because we were not on the first shuttle to arrive, and all the large-number-of-seats-together had been taken at the tables. LUCKILY, L&T and The Mr. & I found the last batch of 4-together (at a table with a bunch of old biddies & 1 grumpy old man, all of whom didn't speak to us throughout the whole night, and fair enough, how could they... we were sitting at the table RIGHT UNDER THE ONLY SPEAKERS IN THE WHOLE PLACE which were turned up to "Insanely Hazardous" because they had to reach everyone in the whole place's ear-holes!)
9pm passes - still no couple (did I mention that the invitation said "4pm"?). No drinks, either, b/c it's a drywedding NOT a WEDDING. Biddy No. 1 next to The Mr. is cleaning out her ears with a q-tip that she conveniently brought along. Well, you gotta do SOMETHING! 9:30pm - the couple finally arrives. Everybody goes apeshit because they do a little dance (which I know they've been rehersing religiously for the last 4 weeks because Jr. has had to leave the office every evening at 4:59 in order to make it to Mma Finance & her Bridesmaids' instructional classes), whilst coming into the conf. centre. Everyone at our table misses out on witnessing said dance b/c everybody else bumrushes the scene and forms a human wall past which no one else can see.
After the dance-in, the couple takes their seats and the speeches start. All in Setswana, of course, so again NOT ENTERTAINING for those of us who catch about every 5th word. Sweet old L. translated bits and pieces for us, but again, TOO FRICKIN LOUD to really hear anyone at your table. There was a prophet who prophesied over them. There was a "poet" who channeled the voice of god and prophesied over them again (this is not an exaggeration), there was a preacher who screamed into the mic and burst all our ear drums, then there was the bridesmaid and the groomsman and Jr. and Mma Finance, who at least did their speeches in English. Then some Auntie or whoever it was got up and screamed in Setswana some more, and according to Leto, this is where she was giving instructions on how the tables were to be served food. (Number by number, go figure. Help yourself-type serving line). It was round about this time (the time when all the old ladies at our table were fast asleep in their chairs) when I SHIT YOU NOT, a minimum of 45 new people came strolling into the function. These people were obviously gate crashing because the Mother-of-the-bride's eyes got super big and people started rushing around like crazy - screaming at young people to give their chairs to old people, and delegating people to sit on the stone wall, the ground, the band's chairs, etc.
I happen to know some behind-the-scenes info here, whereby Jr. told me that because the Mother-of-the-bride's family had agreed to fit the 60,000-buck-bill for this NOT a WEDDING, they told him that he could give out 50 invitations, and they would give out 150. Well, in the setswana culture, this is just a giant snub to the family of Jr., and apparently he had some uncles and cousins that were NOT cool with this whole arrangement. Not that I ever found out who they were (Jr. has the next week off work), but I'm betting they were his disgruntled people. At any rate, every single table was taken up and every chair filled by this time, not to mention the caterer who had always been under instructions to cook for 200. Looks like there's gonna be trouble...
So, you can imagine what happened when we finally (an hour later - 10:15 pm... the time we had told Soo would be the LATEST that we could POSSIBLY be expected to be at her place to fetch the Joo) got into the serving line. Where the bridesmaids were on dishing-up duty. Instead of "goat pieces", you got "goat piece". Instead of "vegetables" you got "vegetable" (I literally got one cube of pumpkin... it looked so lonely there on my giant white plate...) instead of "lasagne", we got "la sag". The funniest part was when I got to the girl serving from the goat dish... she said "goat?" and I said "sure". She looked disappointed. She served me a begrudging 1/2 spoonfull of what was in the big silver serving dish in front of her. It was sauce. I poked at it and said "can I have some goat"? and she looked up at me with that "DOH! BUSTED!" look on her face. Dumbass ho had the nerve to think that dumbass whitey wouldn't notice that GOAT STEW IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE GOAT MEAT IN IT! I laughed. I wasn't mad, I thought it was creative. She then put a tiny little bone on my plate. I gave her another look and she begrudingly then put a tiny piece of meat the size of my pinky toe into the mix. You gotta admire a girl who takes her instructions that seriously (it was clear to everyone by now, that the said "instructions" had come flying down the buffet line by the Mother-of-the-bride, as soon as the gate-crashers arrived: "only half-portions for everybody! We're in 'Loaves and Fishes Mode', here, people!!! Half-portions only!!!") What was really hilarious was seeing the girl at the dessert table who was literally cutting a variety of things like cupcakes, trifle, cake pieces, and custard tart pieces into 1/2. And then when you saw everyone's eyes light up at the sight of all that variety of potential desserts, you heard her burst out a very curt: "there is only one option!!!", Soup-Nazi-style.
OK So I'm not proud of it, but we wolfed down the burnt-tasting (well it HAD probably been on the warmer for up to 4 hours) half-foods and blew the hell out of there. I know eating and running is very poor taste, but it was now 11pm and Soo is 9 months preggers and probably dying of exhaustion, waiting up for us to come pick up the Joolington. Also you had to GRAB one of the shuttles that would take you back up to the entrance gate (2-3kms away through the bush), because there was a MASS RUSH by other disgruntled, tired, old people who just wanted to go HOME. We found Simon and agreed he would keep an eye out and a foot in the queue, and jump on and save us 2 seats. We left poor TT&L in our wake and found out the next day they only escaped 2 hours later. I felt horrible about this, because out of all of us, it was TT who was the most freezing cold. I'm telling you, after the sun goes down in this country, it doesnt matter if it's winter or spring. . . . if you're on top of an un-protected mountain top, in a strapless dress, in the windy season... you're gonna freeze your tatas off!!! But in chivalrous Titanic-style, both of them had agreed: "save yourselves! You guys have babies to live for! We'll make it on the next ship!"
Final bonus? All 4 of us (L, TT, Me, Mr.) were terribly sick the next day with the evil poopies. Thannnnks.
It was funny though, I kind of had a bit of a laugh about this whole horribly bad experience (because I had forecast it all, knowing the M-I-L), whereas The Mr. was VIOLENTLY angry about it. He was screaming profanities and carrying on the whole drive back home, and then couldn't even settle down enough to sleep once we got home after midnight. He even woke up angry the next day, and on the way to the Hash, was still carrying on about how pissed off he was. Then when the evil poopies struck, he got even MADDER! All day long it was ranting and raving from the Mr. It was kinda funny, but I felt bad for him being so angry. While this had all been happening at the NOT a WEDDING, I was trying to just keep on keepin on, updating my twitter feed and snapping ridiculous photos of Leto & TT on the ol' iphone. Meanwhile he was just *stewing*. Like the non-existant burnt goat pieces. Trying hard not to, but failing. The poor guy had soooo much work to do this weekend and a deadline to beat by monday morning, and here he was, wasting away in the bitter cold, starving to death while getting screamed at by an ill-placed speaker and a wailing, ululating Motswana woman professing that God was going to strike down anyone who didn't help the prophets cast out the demons of the shadow of the devil from the blessed marriage of the Jr. & his M.F.
At any rate, Sunday was supposed to be our "worth-it-all" weekend moment, because we just dearly love our sunday hashing sooooooooo much. But unfortunately that was when we got sick, and we barely made it through the 7km (which just HAPPENED to be the longest one of the year so far - how timely!) doubled over in intestinal cramps, desperate for the nearest toilet, dyyyyying in pain. We didn't even stay for the beer & braai on afterwards (also b/c the Mr. still had work to do), but came home and felt quite a bit better after some quality bonding time with the porceline god.
Sunday night, we had promised Leto & TT that we'd drop the JuJu Monster at their place and that The Mr. and I would go out for dinner while they babysat. We were feeling better at this stage, so we did. But we kind of did it more for them (TT hadn't met her yet and was dying to) than our own need for date-night, because we still weren't feeling 100%, however it turned out to be a great arrangement because eating a bit of pasta and garlic bread turned out to be just what the dr. ordered for our abused tummies. And it was a nice note to end a horrible weekend on. Except for that the poor Mr. had to come home and work SOME MORE. Well anyway, we bought L&T some muffins, went back to their place where we picked up the JooPoo Machine, swapped muffins for baby, said a terribly rushed goodbye, and sped home to get this weekend over with. I was asleep by 9pm, and the Mr. pulled the plug on his computer by 10.
At last it was over!
I did get a terribly cool spring wedding outfit of the whole gig however. And a 7km run. And a nice italian meal - which didn't go straight to my waistline because it went straight out the other end without stopping. Awesome!
But in a bittersweet moment that just couldn't be more appropriate for the weekend - The Mr. turns on his computer this morning at 6am to finish his project before it turns into a pumpkin and finds.... an email from La Client saying "um, we've put the project on hold. Stop working on it for now."
DOH!
Priceless!
Anyhoo, poor guy is going to come home early because I'm going to yoga this afternoon, so hopefully a restful long evening at home with nothing to do will be just what he needs and we'll just try to pretend like it was a 3-day weekend and that the week officially starts afresh on Tuesday.
Well what's also the worst is this blasted weekend, which, the majority of was centred around this *%&$ wedding (well it wasn't even a wedding, it was a RECEPTION, but the couple has been referring to it as a "wedding" for the past 8 months or whatever - even sending out "wedding invitations" etc etc. I'm sorry, but if you want to call it a wedding, there HAS to be a ceremony. Some dude or gal has got to get up and say the words "I now pronounce you husband and wife" or at least "you may kiss the bride", etc. This, God help me, was nothing more than speeches and a dinner and dancing. Is that a reception or a wedding? I thought so. Not to mention that they went to the church and did the church thing earlier in the week. Now THAT would've been the wedding. Oh and dont forget the "traditional wedding" that happened last month. The one where cattle and suits and blankets and MONEY were exchanged for Jr.'s right to marry Mma Finance.)
OK so first we had to wake up early ON SATURDAY (sin!) b/c A.) the Mr. had to work (poor thing - uber pressure on his projects at work these days) and B.) I had to go buy a present and some wedding-outfit accessories and the like, wrapping paper, a card, etc etc etc. Then it was all rush, rush, rush, to get home, get dressed, wrap pressie, eat SOMETHING (thank GOD we did, after what later would ensue), bundle up Miss Baby JuJu Fartypants, and whisk her off to the Animal Peeps Shelter where we would meet Soo (who was babysitting for the night), do the baby-drop, and then drive alllllllllllll the way to as far away as one can geographically get (from the shelter), where the "NOT a WEDDING" was happening. The invitation said "4pm". We were there at 4pm. No one else was. So we went to the restaurant and had 2 glasses of wine. By the time Leto&TT got there (again thank God they at least came) it was 5. We got on one of the open-air safari vehicles and were driven through the dust and wind to what was called on the invitation "the picnic place for finger foods and snacks". OK. So where were the "finger foods" and "snacks"? Yes, there were potato chips. And peanuts. And some bottles of water. And no bride, and no groom. Luckily there was Simon & his gal. So the 6 of us sat and sort-of ate chippies and talked about all the things we could POSSIBLY talk about, while all the other lost-looking guests sat around and did the same, and watched some hippos and crocs in the lake.
NEARLY 2 HOURS LATER.... AND WELL PAST SUNSET....we started getting shuttled up to the main venue which was on top of a mountain in an open-air conference centre. Where the "NOT a WEDDING SO STOP CALLING IT THAT" was being held. In the windy season. Sooooo as luck would happen, Simon & his gal get seperated for us because we were not on the first shuttle to arrive, and all the large-number-of-seats-together had been taken at the tables. LUCKILY, L&T and The Mr. & I found the last batch of 4-together (at a table with a bunch of old biddies & 1 grumpy old man, all of whom didn't speak to us throughout the whole night, and fair enough, how could they... we were sitting at the table RIGHT UNDER THE ONLY SPEAKERS IN THE WHOLE PLACE which were turned up to "Insanely Hazardous" because they had to reach everyone in the whole place's ear-holes!)
9pm passes - still no couple (did I mention that the invitation said "4pm"?). No drinks, either, b/c it's a dry
After the dance-in, the couple takes their seats and the speeches start. All in Setswana, of course, so again NOT ENTERTAINING for those of us who catch about every 5th word. Sweet old L. translated bits and pieces for us, but again, TOO FRICKIN LOUD to really hear anyone at your table. There was a prophet who prophesied over them. There was a "poet" who channeled the voice of god and prophesied over them again (this is not an exaggeration), there was a preacher who screamed into the mic and burst all our ear drums, then there was the bridesmaid and the groomsman and Jr. and Mma Finance, who at least did their speeches in English. Then some Auntie or whoever it was got up and screamed in Setswana some more, and according to Leto, this is where she was giving instructions on how the tables were to be served food. (Number by number, go figure. Help yourself-type serving line). It was round about this time (the time when all the old ladies at our table were fast asleep in their chairs) when I SHIT YOU NOT, a minimum of 45 new people came strolling into the function. These people were obviously gate crashing because the Mother-of-the-bride's eyes got super big and people started rushing around like crazy - screaming at young people to give their chairs to old people, and delegating people to sit on the stone wall, the ground, the band's chairs, etc.
I happen to know some behind-the-scenes info here, whereby Jr. told me that because the Mother-of-the-bride's family had agreed to fit the 60,000-buck-bill for this NOT a WEDDING, they told him that he could give out 50 invitations, and they would give out 150. Well, in the setswana culture, this is just a giant snub to the family of Jr., and apparently he had some uncles and cousins that were NOT cool with this whole arrangement. Not that I ever found out who they were (Jr. has the next week off work), but I'm betting they were his disgruntled people. At any rate, every single table was taken up and every chair filled by this time, not to mention the caterer who had always been under instructions to cook for 200. Looks like there's gonna be trouble...
So, you can imagine what happened when we finally (an hour later - 10:15 pm... the time we had told Soo would be the LATEST that we could POSSIBLY be expected to be at her place to fetch the Joo) got into the serving line. Where the bridesmaids were on dishing-up duty. Instead of "goat pieces", you got "goat piece". Instead of "vegetables" you got "vegetable" (I literally got one cube of pumpkin... it looked so lonely there on my giant white plate...) instead of "lasagne", we got "la sag". The funniest part was when I got to the girl serving from the goat dish... she said "goat?" and I said "sure". She looked disappointed. She served me a begrudging 1/2 spoonfull of what was in the big silver serving dish in front of her. It was sauce. I poked at it and said "can I have some goat"? and she looked up at me with that "DOH! BUSTED!" look on her face. Dumbass ho had the nerve to think that dumbass whitey wouldn't notice that GOAT STEW IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE GOAT MEAT IN IT! I laughed. I wasn't mad, I thought it was creative. She then put a tiny little bone on my plate. I gave her another look and she begrudingly then put a tiny piece of meat the size of my pinky toe into the mix. You gotta admire a girl who takes her instructions that seriously (it was clear to everyone by now, that the said "instructions" had come flying down the buffet line by the Mother-of-the-bride, as soon as the gate-crashers arrived: "only half-portions for everybody! We're in 'Loaves and Fishes Mode', here, people!!! Half-portions only!!!") What was really hilarious was seeing the girl at the dessert table who was literally cutting a variety of things like cupcakes, trifle, cake pieces, and custard tart pieces into 1/2. And then when you saw everyone's eyes light up at the sight of all that variety of potential desserts, you heard her burst out a very curt: "there is only one option!!!", Soup-Nazi-style.
OK So I'm not proud of it, but we wolfed down the burnt-tasting (well it HAD probably been on the warmer for up to 4 hours) half-foods and blew the hell out of there. I know eating and running is very poor taste, but it was now 11pm and Soo is 9 months preggers and probably dying of exhaustion, waiting up for us to come pick up the Joolington. Also you had to GRAB one of the shuttles that would take you back up to the entrance gate (2-3kms away through the bush), because there was a MASS RUSH by other disgruntled, tired, old people who just wanted to go HOME. We found Simon and agreed he would keep an eye out and a foot in the queue, and jump on and save us 2 seats. We left poor TT&L in our wake and found out the next day they only escaped 2 hours later. I felt horrible about this, because out of all of us, it was TT who was the most freezing cold. I'm telling you, after the sun goes down in this country, it doesnt matter if it's winter or spring. . . . if you're on top of an un-protected mountain top, in a strapless dress, in the windy season... you're gonna freeze your tatas off!!! But in chivalrous Titanic-style, both of them had agreed: "save yourselves! You guys have babies to live for! We'll make it on the next ship!"
Final bonus? All 4 of us (L, TT, Me, Mr.) were terribly sick the next day with the evil poopies. Thannnnks.
It was funny though, I kind of had a bit of a laugh about this whole horribly bad experience (because I had forecast it all, knowing the M-I-L), whereas The Mr. was VIOLENTLY angry about it. He was screaming profanities and carrying on the whole drive back home, and then couldn't even settle down enough to sleep once we got home after midnight. He even woke up angry the next day, and on the way to the Hash, was still carrying on about how pissed off he was. Then when the evil poopies struck, he got even MADDER! All day long it was ranting and raving from the Mr. It was kinda funny, but I felt bad for him being so angry. While this had all been happening at the NOT a WEDDING, I was trying to just keep on keepin on, updating my twitter feed and snapping ridiculous photos of Leto & TT on the ol' iphone. Meanwhile he was just *stewing*. Like the non-existant burnt goat pieces. Trying hard not to, but failing. The poor guy had soooo much work to do this weekend and a deadline to beat by monday morning, and here he was, wasting away in the bitter cold, starving to death while getting screamed at by an ill-placed speaker and a wailing, ululating Motswana woman professing that God was going to strike down anyone who didn't help the prophets cast out the demons of the shadow of the devil from the blessed marriage of the Jr. & his M.F.
At any rate, Sunday was supposed to be our "worth-it-all" weekend moment, because we just dearly love our sunday hashing sooooooooo much. But unfortunately that was when we got sick, and we barely made it through the 7km (which just HAPPENED to be the longest one of the year so far - how timely!) doubled over in intestinal cramps, desperate for the nearest toilet, dyyyyying in pain. We didn't even stay for the beer & braai on afterwards (also b/c the Mr. still had work to do), but came home and felt quite a bit better after some quality bonding time with the porceline god.
Sunday night, we had promised Leto & TT that we'd drop the JuJu Monster at their place and that The Mr. and I would go out for dinner while they babysat. We were feeling better at this stage, so we did. But we kind of did it more for them (TT hadn't met her yet and was dying to) than our own need for date-night, because we still weren't feeling 100%, however it turned out to be a great arrangement because eating a bit of pasta and garlic bread turned out to be just what the dr. ordered for our abused tummies. And it was a nice note to end a horrible weekend on. Except for that the poor Mr. had to come home and work SOME MORE. Well anyway, we bought L&T some muffins, went back to their place where we picked up the JooPoo Machine, swapped muffins for baby, said a terribly rushed goodbye, and sped home to get this weekend over with. I was asleep by 9pm, and the Mr. pulled the plug on his computer by 10.
At last it was over!
I did get a terribly cool spring wedding outfit of the whole gig however. And a 7km run. And a nice italian meal - which didn't go straight to my waistline because it went straight out the other end without stopping. Awesome!
But in a bittersweet moment that just couldn't be more appropriate for the weekend - The Mr. turns on his computer this morning at 6am to finish his project before it turns into a pumpkin and finds.... an email from La Client saying "um, we've put the project on hold. Stop working on it for now."
DOH!
Priceless!
Anyhoo, poor guy is going to come home early because I'm going to yoga this afternoon, so hopefully a restful long evening at home with nothing to do will be just what he needs and we'll just try to pretend like it was a 3-day weekend and that the week officially starts afresh on Tuesday.
Labels: aggro, BW-general, work
Konkin' heads together like coconuts
4 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 03 July 2009 at 7/03/2009 10:29:00 am.
I just sat through the most un-necessary, waste-of-time, piss-me-off meeting ever! Of course it stems from the presentation I had to make last week, where a bunch of people who didn't read my giant document from hell asked a bunch of ignorant, dumb-ass questions that dialed the WTF factor up to 11....
so without telling a boring government-work-related story of no interest to me nor the fly on the wall, the essence is that the (Department) moderator of that meeting MADE me hold this 2nd meeting at our office, where Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, and Fancy-pants McGee could come over here and ask our groundwater specialist all their assenine questions, in a seperate forum, away from all the non-interested people. So that's what I just had to sit through. The problem being, it WASNT Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, and Fancy-pants McGee that showed up, it was their BOSSES. Who are clearly more intelligent, and weren't even AT the first meeting asking questions. So these big gov't bosses are all sittin here in my office goin "Why TF are we here? We understand all this crap... Why did we have to come?" USELESS!! TOTALLY USELESS!!
I just wanted to konk all their heads together and go "well GREAT if you understand it, so Why TF are you sending your idiot bastard juvenile henchmen to the meetings where they have to be seen to critique expert work!?!?!?" AGGGGGGGGH!
Slappin' faces, man. Slappin' faces.
I am treading thin ice though. I have a terminal disorder where I can NOT look people in the eye whose face I want to slap. And so all these big shots are here in my office and I'm talking at them through clenched teeth and dagger eyes. I know it's bad, but I can't help it. This is why The Mr. has to be the P.R. side of our business. Unfortunately though he was already triple-booked at a bunch of other meetings. Regardless, I know they felt my wrath. But that doesn't help - it probably only makes them want to eat me alive the next time they see me. I need to go to "sensitivity training for normal people who have to deal with government people". Does that exist?
Two of them had to go to the bathroom while they were here, where I just posted my bitchy sign about "if you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat", and my amazingly detailed graphic of a toilet seat with drips on it, that I just made yesterday. I noted that after the meeting was over, the toilet seat was left up and the toilet left UN FLUSHED!!! AGGGGGGH!
I have had it with work. Or mainly, i've had it with people. People pissing on my toilet AND my mojo!!
I am also having it *up to here* with the Animal Peeps. This is SO my last year on the committee. I won't even explain farther - but there, grievance aired.
And ending on a positive note, I'm looking forward to this weekend where the one organization I'm a part of that I actually LOVE, the Harriers, are having the weekly run at our place. So that means the Mr. and I will be setting out the track on Saturday and hopefully everyone will be pleased with it on sunday. Yay.
so without telling a boring government-work-related story of no interest to me nor the fly on the wall, the essence is that the (Department) moderator of that meeting MADE me hold this 2nd meeting at our office, where Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, and Fancy-pants McGee could come over here and ask our groundwater specialist all their assenine questions, in a seperate forum, away from all the non-interested people. So that's what I just had to sit through. The problem being, it WASNT Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, and Fancy-pants McGee that showed up, it was their BOSSES. Who are clearly more intelligent, and weren't even AT the first meeting asking questions. So these big gov't bosses are all sittin here in my office goin "Why TF are we here? We understand all this crap... Why did we have to come?" USELESS!! TOTALLY USELESS!!
I just wanted to konk all their heads together and go "well GREAT if you understand it, so Why TF are you sending your idiot bastard juvenile henchmen to the meetings where they have to be seen to critique expert work!?!?!?" AGGGGGGGGH!
Slappin' faces, man. Slappin' faces.
I am treading thin ice though. I have a terminal disorder where I can NOT look people in the eye whose face I want to slap. And so all these big shots are here in my office and I'm talking at them through clenched teeth and dagger eyes. I know it's bad, but I can't help it. This is why The Mr. has to be the P.R. side of our business. Unfortunately though he was already triple-booked at a bunch of other meetings. Regardless, I know they felt my wrath. But that doesn't help - it probably only makes them want to eat me alive the next time they see me. I need to go to "sensitivity training for normal people who have to deal with government people". Does that exist?
Two of them had to go to the bathroom while they were here, where I just posted my bitchy sign about "if you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat", and my amazingly detailed graphic of a toilet seat with drips on it, that I just made yesterday. I noted that after the meeting was over, the toilet seat was left up and the toilet left UN FLUSHED!!! AGGGGGGH!
I have had it with work. Or mainly, i've had it with people. People pissing on my toilet AND my mojo!!
I am also having it *up to here* with the Animal Peeps. This is SO my last year on the committee. I won't even explain farther - but there, grievance aired.
And ending on a positive note, I'm looking forward to this weekend where the one organization I'm a part of that I actually LOVE, the Harriers, are having the weekly run at our place. So that means the Mr. and I will be setting out the track on Saturday and hopefully everyone will be pleased with it on sunday. Yay.
Labels: BW-general, HHH, work
Bodily bodily bodily!
2 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 19 June 2009 at 6/19/2009 09:29:00 am.
It is friday and by gid it feels like friday.
My gym burned down so I won't be going to gym after work, which means I can get home super-early and finish my preparations for the dinner party with the Cs tonight. I am going with a WHEAT FREE GREEK/MEDITERRANEAN menu (crikey!), as follows:
A trio of appetizers including:
- Baba ghanouj, Tzaziki, and a variety of olives (with pita bread for dipping for those of us wheat-eaters, and gluten-free crackers + wheat-free rye bread for Ms. Celiac, for dipping)
Main course of:
Kleftiko (aka "stolen lamb") slow cooked with potatoes and carrots in individual foil parcels - heavy on garlic, heavy on rosemary, heavy on HELL YEAH
Supported by a greek salad.
And for dessert:
- Flourless cheesecake on a wheat-free crunchy cookie base, drizzled with a very greeky lemon/honey sauce.
I put the kleftiko together over the course of last night and this morning, which means all I have to do when I get home tonight is whip up the Baba ghanouj and Tzaziki, and get some help from my very beautiful sous chef (the Mr., obviously) on the cheesecake. I'm thinking of cutting it into little squares to serve on the wheat-free crunchie cookie squares (which have already been purchased) because my cake mold is round, but the cookie squares are (obviously) not-round.
Last night was Wally's (fellow Animal Peeps committee member) birthday party which was pretty cool - a very weird mixture of Germans and Batswana. The most bizarre combination ever. But fun. I got to know the city's No. 1 local crazy-cat-lady picture framer very well. She's a trip. We may be on the verge of starting a book club. Wally had some caterer who specializes in only bruchetta, make the finger food trays. Who knew you could do so much with slices of french bread? There was a curry chicken one, some with blue cheese, some with brie, even a prosciutto & melon bruchetta. Great idea. I'm going to remember that one... seriously, you can make an entire 4-course meal out of just bruchettas, with all the food groups and everything. The caterer even had wheat-free ones (because the Cs were there too) all prepped as well!
Then saturday Soo & Mx are having us over for dinner at their place, so it will be a weekend of good eatins. Soo is like what, 7 months preggo now? So who knows how much longer she's going to be on the social radar, hopefully we can pull these things off at least a few more times before she drops a baldy on our lovely blossoming friendship!!
Sunday is the "neighbourhood bbq"... I put that in "quotes" due to the fact I am fairly certain that this thing will start at 1pm and end promptly at 2. If I were a gambling woman I would also probably head down to my local bookie and ask him to lay a few Pula on Me & the Mr. being the youngest couple at this shindig, but no bother. I'm extremely interested in sticking my nose into this business of "who lives in what house" because as yet we only know like 3 of our neighbours. There could very possibly be a cool cat lady or burned out hippie vegan or other such eccentric person of interest hiding out in any number of these funky little cottages in the trees on the mountain. We'll see. The fact that our landlords (the hosts) don't drink should also prove to make for an interesting spread and effect on the level of social-lubrication that gets reached.
In other news I realize I really need to get out of the EIA business. I think everything happens for a reason and the fact that I'm more than 1/2 way through this new Masters' degree now is probably just right on time for allowing me my way out. If I can start now just turning down the spigot on the EIA work, it should give me just enough time to gently transition me into the EHS side of things by the time I graduate at the end of next year. I have just SO HAD IT with the government crap and the idiot ass-hats in unwarranted positions of power who are just eternally out to get my goat and kill my buzz... these 23 year old kids who feel like they need to flex their muscles and have NO idea what they're talking about, but yet have the power to screw up every single project we work on and (more than anything) PISS ME OFF. I just need out. I can't deal with this aggro. The worst part is, it isn't just a BW problem - I hear from my old pops that he has to endure the exact same BS back in the states too. I guess assholes are just the same all over the globe.
So anyway, I'm going to miss the Hash this sunday b/c of the neighbourhood bbq, which sucks - 2 wks in a row now. And there's no gym to go to! So today at lunch we shall climb K-hill, and then I don't know but we'll have to be creative over the weekend, concerning the road to fitness. The Hashers are having our "Christmas in June" next weekend, and they asked none other than yours truly to be a slutty Mrs. Claus. This could truly be interesting. Long Tall Swedish Boy is going to be Santa. I think they probably thought the photos would make nice on a scale of irony (honestly, that guy is like 6'10"). I need to check into securing some fishnets, I reckon.
Ah weekend. I feel like celebrating. What, I don't know, but I may have to do something drastic like make some long distance phone calls or something - which reminds me - fathers day. agh! I best get on that too.
My gym burned down so I won't be going to gym after work, which means I can get home super-early and finish my preparations for the dinner party with the Cs tonight. I am going with a WHEAT FREE GREEK/MEDITERRANEAN menu (crikey!), as follows:
A trio of appetizers including:
- Baba ghanouj, Tzaziki, and a variety of olives (with pita bread for dipping for those of us wheat-eaters, and gluten-free crackers + wheat-free rye bread for Ms. Celiac, for dipping)
Main course of:
Kleftiko (aka "stolen lamb") slow cooked with potatoes and carrots in individual foil parcels - heavy on garlic, heavy on rosemary, heavy on HELL YEAH
Supported by a greek salad.
And for dessert:
- Flourless cheesecake on a wheat-free crunchy cookie base, drizzled with a very greeky lemon/honey sauce.
I put the kleftiko together over the course of last night and this morning, which means all I have to do when I get home tonight is whip up the Baba ghanouj and Tzaziki, and get some help from my very beautiful sous chef (the Mr., obviously) on the cheesecake. I'm thinking of cutting it into little squares to serve on the wheat-free crunchie cookie squares (which have already been purchased) because my cake mold is round, but the cookie squares are (obviously) not-round.
Last night was Wally's (fellow Animal Peeps committee member) birthday party which was pretty cool - a very weird mixture of Germans and Batswana. The most bizarre combination ever. But fun. I got to know the city's No. 1 local crazy-cat-lady picture framer very well. She's a trip. We may be on the verge of starting a book club. Wally had some caterer who specializes in only bruchetta, make the finger food trays. Who knew you could do so much with slices of french bread? There was a curry chicken one, some with blue cheese, some with brie, even a prosciutto & melon bruchetta. Great idea. I'm going to remember that one... seriously, you can make an entire 4-course meal out of just bruchettas, with all the food groups and everything. The caterer even had wheat-free ones (because the Cs were there too) all prepped as well!
Then saturday Soo & Mx are having us over for dinner at their place, so it will be a weekend of good eatins. Soo is like what, 7 months preggo now? So who knows how much longer she's going to be on the social radar, hopefully we can pull these things off at least a few more times before she drops a baldy on our lovely blossoming friendship!!
Sunday is the "neighbourhood bbq"... I put that in "quotes" due to the fact I am fairly certain that this thing will start at 1pm and end promptly at 2. If I were a gambling woman I would also probably head down to my local bookie and ask him to lay a few Pula on Me & the Mr. being the youngest couple at this shindig, but no bother. I'm extremely interested in sticking my nose into this business of "who lives in what house" because as yet we only know like 3 of our neighbours. There could very possibly be a cool cat lady or burned out hippie vegan or other such eccentric person of interest hiding out in any number of these funky little cottages in the trees on the mountain. We'll see. The fact that our landlords (the hosts) don't drink should also prove to make for an interesting spread and effect on the level of social-lubrication that gets reached.
In other news I realize I really need to get out of the EIA business. I think everything happens for a reason and the fact that I'm more than 1/2 way through this new Masters' degree now is probably just right on time for allowing me my way out. If I can start now just turning down the spigot on the EIA work, it should give me just enough time to gently transition me into the EHS side of things by the time I graduate at the end of next year. I have just SO HAD IT with the government crap and the idiot ass-hats in unwarranted positions of power who are just eternally out to get my goat and kill my buzz... these 23 year old kids who feel like they need to flex their muscles and have NO idea what they're talking about, but yet have the power to screw up every single project we work on and (more than anything) PISS ME OFF. I just need out. I can't deal with this aggro. The worst part is, it isn't just a BW problem - I hear from my old pops that he has to endure the exact same BS back in the states too. I guess assholes are just the same all over the globe.
So anyway, I'm going to miss the Hash this sunday b/c of the neighbourhood bbq, which sucks - 2 wks in a row now. And there's no gym to go to! So today at lunch we shall climb K-hill, and then I don't know but we'll have to be creative over the weekend, concerning the road to fitness. The Hashers are having our "Christmas in June" next weekend, and they asked none other than yours truly to be a slutty Mrs. Claus. This could truly be interesting. Long Tall Swedish Boy is going to be Santa. I think they probably thought the photos would make nice on a scale of irony (honestly, that guy is like 6'10"). I need to check into securing some fishnets, I reckon.
Ah weekend. I feel like celebrating. What, I don't know, but I may have to do something drastic like make some long distance phone calls or something - which reminds me - fathers day. agh! I best get on that too.
Labels: food, HHH, mis amigos, work
Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
Is this not proof that my belief that humor therapy should not only be government subsidized but also our companies should have to pay to take us to stand-up comedians or watch episodes of 30 Rock during the work day?
One of my main course modules that I'm doing right now for my current semester is about Ergonomics and there is a whole ginormous part in there about work stress loads and tension and the unhealthiness that comes with being overworked. PRETTY DANG TIMELY I'D SAY.
We are still dying over here at the office. I'm almost done with this huge diamond mine project but this is the "downhill slope" part of the project which means everything is looming at 500 mph and I can't keep up. Add that to the fact I'm kinda sick AND the inlaws are (still) here and I'm seriously hurting. I might kill someone this week.
Tonight when we leave the office, we're going to Dr. GoodVet and picking up our new boy. We fetched him from the shelter this morning and lugged his 50kg+ body into the truck and off to Dr. Snip-snip. Rowwwerrrrrrrr! He was so good though. This dog may look smiley, but he's the scarediest scardey pup I've ever had to work with. He's petrified of everything. Good for the fact that we won't have the same problems (chomp!) we had with Sech's rehab, but bad for the fact that I just feel so sorry for him and this will be a long road to recovery because he has absolute zero in the way of confidence, & very high stress levels. He pees SO. FRICKIN. MUCH. I swear his bladder holds about 80L of pee.
The weekend away at the posh bush lodge was good, but of course it was with the inlaws so... agh I dont even know what to say. We saw a lioness on the hunt, a breakaway pack of wild dogs, rhino, elephant, etc., and my MIL was freaked out by anything that looked remotely dangerous. Now see, I just don't have time for that crap. You're spending thousands of bucks to be out there in the african elements, don't sit in the truck and hyperventilate! Come ON! And then within the same 12 hours, my know-it-all FIL says (as he does in his gruff, manly farmer voice of omniscience) "agh! these guides don't need to walk us back to our chalets with guns! it's all just for show!" Riiight. Gotcha. Frickin know-it-all. How about that BLACK RHINO WHO CAME UP TO THE EATING AREA WHILE YOU WERE SUCKING DOWN YOUR 15TH BEER AT DINNER?
photos soon.
Is this not proof that my belief that humor therapy should not only be government subsidized but also our companies should have to pay to take us to stand-up comedians or watch episodes of 30 Rock during the work day?
One of my main course modules that I'm doing right now for my current semester is about Ergonomics and there is a whole ginormous part in there about work stress loads and tension and the unhealthiness that comes with being overworked. PRETTY DANG TIMELY I'D SAY.
We are still dying over here at the office. I'm almost done with this huge diamond mine project but this is the "downhill slope" part of the project which means everything is looming at 500 mph and I can't keep up. Add that to the fact I'm kinda sick AND the inlaws are (still) here and I'm seriously hurting. I might kill someone this week.
Tonight when we leave the office, we're going to Dr. GoodVet and picking up our new boy. We fetched him from the shelter this morning and lugged his 50kg+ body into the truck and off to Dr. Snip-snip. Rowwwerrrrrrrr! He was so good though. This dog may look smiley, but he's the scarediest scardey pup I've ever had to work with. He's petrified of everything. Good for the fact that we won't have the same problems (chomp!) we had with Sech's rehab, but bad for the fact that I just feel so sorry for him and this will be a long road to recovery because he has absolute zero in the way of confidence, & very high stress levels. He pees SO. FRICKIN. MUCH. I swear his bladder holds about 80L of pee.
The weekend away at the posh bush lodge was good, but of course it was with the inlaws so... agh I dont even know what to say. We saw a lioness on the hunt, a breakaway pack of wild dogs, rhino, elephant, etc., and my MIL was freaked out by anything that looked remotely dangerous. Now see, I just don't have time for that crap. You're spending thousands of bucks to be out there in the african elements, don't sit in the truck and hyperventilate! Come ON! And then within the same 12 hours, my know-it-all FIL says (as he does in his gruff, manly farmer voice of omniscience) "agh! these guides don't need to walk us back to our chalets with guns! it's all just for show!" Riiight. Gotcha. Frickin know-it-all. How about that BLACK RHINO WHO CAME UP TO THE EATING AREA WHILE YOU WERE SUCKING DOWN YOUR 15TH BEER AT DINNER?
photos soon.
Labels: hounds, stress management, work
Why? Why! Whyyyy!?
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 23 March 2009 at 3/23/2009 01:40:00 pm.
Why does my FIL have to be such a $%&#!???
I feel sorry for The Mr. because he has to entertain these people more than I do, and by that I mean they basically just want to talk to him and fawn over him and be served by him and have all their questions entertained by him... kinda lets me off the hook, but by the same token, that's just not how we normally roll. It's hard. Know what else is hard? Know-it-alls and over-analysers, and people who take vacations to english-speaking countries and then proceed to speak to Botswana-born waitresses, etc, in european languages. riiiiiiiiiight. lemme know how that works for you.
The longer I'm around my MIL, the more I can appreciate the person that she is, the more that I can have sympathy for her and feel sensitive to even the things she does that make me want to throttle something/someone.
I suppose in the spirit of the QSI I should stop right there and move on with my life, but can I just say one big, private
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
while I'm here? I won't feel sorry for myself. I will just persevere!!!
OK, with that out of the way...
I am struggling to finish this giant report at work. It's been weighing on my soul for so long now, and I'm kind of on the downward slope, but that just makes it even harder to finish. Staying at home and working from there a few days last week and the one before helped a bit, because let's face it, I'm way more productive outside of the office. But I still have that "just barely keeping up" feeling in general. Again we're back to the inherent fact that I DONT LIKE MY JOB, but yes, I know I like it MORE when I'm being diligent and getting things done. And listening to music and turning off the internet, etc. None of which I've been doing lately (well, the music because I currently need to be WRITING, which I can't do at the same time) because I'm out of my inspiration-rut. When I find myself uninspired about work, it's normally because I've hit a rough patch where I'm distracted and not performing well.
I also need to dig my heels into my studies. I have 2 assignments that I havent even started and I neeeeeeeeeeed tooooooo.
Why am I such a slacker!!?? I'll tell ya why:
1. Moving
2. New toy
3. Tired
4. Inlaws
5. Other visitors
6. Life
I have a relaxing koi pond on my iPhone. WT....????
OK right so the inlaws got put on a plane yesterday to go up to the Chobe/Vic Falls for a week. So the next 4 days are "alone time" for me and The Mr. [huge sigh of relief]. Tonight after climbing K-hill and towelling off, we will go have a salad or something light at M&B and then go see "He's Just Not That Into You". Yea! Boston Legal is over now, so no reason to not use Monday Nights to our advantage :) They're back (the ILs) on friday. At which point we will be going away for the weekend together. Have mercy it better be one of those last-minute-luxury-lodge deals so at least I feel like I'm getting something out of it. Have mercy, again I say have mercy.
I feel sorry for The Mr. because he has to entertain these people more than I do, and by that I mean they basically just want to talk to him and fawn over him and be served by him and have all their questions entertained by him... kinda lets me off the hook, but by the same token, that's just not how we normally roll. It's hard. Know what else is hard? Know-it-alls and over-analysers, and people who take vacations to english-speaking countries and then proceed to speak to Botswana-born waitresses, etc, in european languages. riiiiiiiiiight. lemme know how that works for you.
The longer I'm around my MIL, the more I can appreciate the person that she is, the more that I can have sympathy for her and feel sensitive to even the things she does that make me want to throttle something/someone.
I suppose in the spirit of the QSI I should stop right there and move on with my life, but can I just say one big, private
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
while I'm here? I won't feel sorry for myself. I will just persevere!!!
OK, with that out of the way...
I am struggling to finish this giant report at work. It's been weighing on my soul for so long now, and I'm kind of on the downward slope, but that just makes it even harder to finish. Staying at home and working from there a few days last week and the one before helped a bit, because let's face it, I'm way more productive outside of the office. But I still have that "just barely keeping up" feeling in general. Again we're back to the inherent fact that I DONT LIKE MY JOB, but yes, I know I like it MORE when I'm being diligent and getting things done. And listening to music and turning off the internet, etc. None of which I've been doing lately (well, the music because I currently need to be WRITING, which I can't do at the same time) because I'm out of my inspiration-rut. When I find myself uninspired about work, it's normally because I've hit a rough patch where I'm distracted and not performing well.
I also need to dig my heels into my studies. I have 2 assignments that I havent even started and I neeeeeeeeeeed tooooooo.
Why am I such a slacker!!?? I'll tell ya why:
1. Moving
2. New toy
3. Tired
4. Inlaws
5. Other visitors
6. Life
I have a relaxing koi pond on my iPhone. WT....????
OK right so the inlaws got put on a plane yesterday to go up to the Chobe/Vic Falls for a week. So the next 4 days are "alone time" for me and The Mr. [huge sigh of relief]. Tonight after climbing K-hill and towelling off, we will go have a salad or something light at M&B and then go see "He's Just Not That Into You". Yea! Boston Legal is over now, so no reason to not use Monday Nights to our advantage :) They're back (the ILs) on friday. At which point we will be going away for the weekend together. Have mercy it better be one of those last-minute-luxury-lodge deals so at least I feel like I'm getting something out of it. Have mercy, again I say have mercy.
New technology, not so blog friendly
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 16 March 2009 at 3/16/2009 09:20:00 am.
Help i cant blog from my iphone! This thing is perplexing. It keeps me so "online all the time" which is great but typing out long strings of text on the touch-typer is a pain in the hole. So i keep putting blogger off.. In favor of the FB and txting and browsing, etc.
Anyway in other news last week was unruly freakin chaos. I had 5 commuter flights in 3 days, inluding one from joburg to gabz which, due to weather flew me TWICE to gabz and back becos we couldnt land! Meetings out the wazoo. Finally got into the office on fri afternoon, exhausted. The good thing is that The Mr. was involved too, so we didnt have to spend any nights apart, due to our master scheduling wizardry. Arent we supposed to be in a recession? Did i not hear something about that? Ow! Too busy. Busy all morning with the Animal Peeps event so couldnt even catch up on any sleep, blast it! Sunday HAD to wake up and get to gym... Shirking my fitness duties in this time of pressure too. Gained 2kg since the big house-move alredy. Ahhg!!!!! I just need a break. And it aint even on the horizon. Inlaws descending on us this weekend now! WT.....??
Otherwise, i'm now officially down one bff here in BW. Again. Now they're effectively all gone. Petra's last party was sat. and then she came round for a more personal good bye dinner last night. We sat out on the stoep and drank wine and tried to get her is as positive a frame of mind as possible about going back to holland. I told her every time she gets gloomy missing BW, just to think about how she can ride her bike everywhere and how the lines at the bank arent 90 mins long or how the grocery store has more than 3 kinds of cheese.
The party sat. was good fun albeit sad. P. combined it with the Mr's bff, G. who is also leaving this week's going away party. So it was double sadness all around. Boo hoo! Now we're both bff-less. Please send new mates!
Anyway in other news last week was unruly freakin chaos. I had 5 commuter flights in 3 days, inluding one from joburg to gabz which, due to weather flew me TWICE to gabz and back becos we couldnt land! Meetings out the wazoo. Finally got into the office on fri afternoon, exhausted. The good thing is that The Mr. was involved too, so we didnt have to spend any nights apart, due to our master scheduling wizardry. Arent we supposed to be in a recession? Did i not hear something about that? Ow! Too busy. Busy all morning with the Animal Peeps event so couldnt even catch up on any sleep, blast it! Sunday HAD to wake up and get to gym... Shirking my fitness duties in this time of pressure too. Gained 2kg since the big house-move alredy. Ahhg!!!!! I just need a break. And it aint even on the horizon. Inlaws descending on us this weekend now! WT.....??
Otherwise, i'm now officially down one bff here in BW. Again. Now they're effectively all gone. Petra's last party was sat. and then she came round for a more personal good bye dinner last night. We sat out on the stoep and drank wine and tried to get her is as positive a frame of mind as possible about going back to holland. I told her every time she gets gloomy missing BW, just to think about how she can ride her bike everywhere and how the lines at the bank arent 90 mins long or how the grocery store has more than 3 kinds of cheese.
The party sat. was good fun albeit sad. P. combined it with the Mr's bff, G. who is also leaving this week's going away party. So it was double sadness all around. Boo hoo! Now we're both bff-less. Please send new mates!
Labels: me the techgeek, mis amigos, work
Day 7 - and all the positives
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 10 February 2009 at 2/10/2009 03:58:00 pm.
Yesterday:
Groceries - bought. Except there's no FLIPPING limes in this town. How am I supposed to make cold udon noodle salad with no lime?!? (i used lemon)
TLA - downloaded. Eventually. It was definitely the most entertaining one yet. 5 stars.
Campground - contacted, but to no avail. Try again tomorrow.
University course - checked up on and confounded. WTH classes did I sign up for anyway?!?!
Today's list:
* Decide if I like T.I.
* Play squash
* Try camping place again
* AB-N's photos for newsletter
----
This whole Month of Self-Betterment is going quite well.
I'm learning stuff. Useful stuff. Like,
IF YOU WANT TO GET ANY WORK DONE, TURN OF THE DAMN INTER-WEB!!!
(or at least between the hours of 10-4)
In addition to that little gem, can I just say believe it or not, I'm enjoying my job more. OK I still wish I was something interesting, like a psychologist or a horse trainer, or just Professionally Awesome.... but I have to say there's a sweet note of "something-that-is-not-hate" in my working hours over the last week. That is so odd.
I think one reason is that I've learned that I can indeed do some things while listening to iTunes or some of the podcasts that I've decided to start downloading during this little human experiment. (This American Life, All Songs Considered, and the weekly Best of YouTube -nb: that's a video one, so it doesn't get watched til we're off-the-clock)
I always said I was the type of gal who can't listen to something (tv, music, radio) if I'm writing. And given that 80% of my job is writing reports, I've never even bothered to try. But the thing I'm learning is that I can do CERTAIN parts of the report-writing while listening. For example, I can set up the document, I can do some cut & pasteys from other reports, I can format the thing, I can make charts and tables, etc.... all that stuff, I can actually listen to iTunes in the meantime and boy howdy, does that make all the difference in the world.
Man it's like 2009 is going to be the year of epiphany.
Who'da thought?!
I watched the Grammys (24 hours behind, as everything else on tv here) and was soooooooo happy for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Raising Sand was my Big Musical Discovery for the whole of 2008, and I love them both as much separately as together. AND they played live during the awards. Awesome.
I went running with the Mr. yesterday instead of going to yoga. I need a break from it or something. I just need to WANT to go again. I'm finding it a little on the yawn-side lately. No reason in particular, I'm just letting the whole "avoiding unpleasant things" thing play itself out and see how it goes. Not that yoga was unpleasant. Oh no, on the contrary I love it. I just need to avoid the burnout.
Avoiding situations of potential aggro and stress at all costs is a good strategy. It's been working wonders for the Mr., who has made so many changes to his behaviour in an attempt to bypass all the aggro he managed to find himself in last year. For example: trying to find an auto trader to trade in old car and dealing with the messers = difficult. Money to be made = high potential, but Dickheads to be encountered and messiness to be had = high potential. Whereas: Putting old car in newspaper and missing out on a few bucks but having people come to you = easy. His new strategy is to make life more pleasant by making life easier. Hence, drop the Treasurer gig with the Animal Peeps, and put the car in the newspaper. Move into house in G-village that isn't a total dump in need of major fixing, instead of saving a few bucks moving into a dive (with more slacker overseas landlords) in our Priority 1 neighbourhood. OK I know I'm going back a month now, but it's proving a good strategy. I recommend it. And the new Mudcrutch album. And the Hold Steady album. And Raising Sand.
That is all.
Groceries - bought. Except there's no FLIPPING limes in this town. How am I supposed to make cold udon noodle salad with no lime?!? (i used lemon)
TLA - downloaded. Eventually. It was definitely the most entertaining one yet. 5 stars.
Campground - contacted, but to no avail. Try again tomorrow.
University course - checked up on and confounded. WTH classes did I sign up for anyway?!?!
Today's list:
* Decide if I like T.I.
* Play squash
* Try camping place again
* AB-N's photos for newsletter
----
This whole Month of Self-Betterment is going quite well.
I'm learning stuff. Useful stuff. Like,
IF YOU WANT TO GET ANY WORK DONE, TURN OF THE DAMN INTER-WEB!!!
(or at least between the hours of 10-4)
In addition to that little gem, can I just say believe it or not, I'm enjoying my job more. OK I still wish I was something interesting, like a psychologist or a horse trainer, or just Professionally Awesome.... but I have to say there's a sweet note of "something-that-is-not-hate" in my working hours over the last week. That is so odd.
I think one reason is that I've learned that I can indeed do some things while listening to iTunes or some of the podcasts that I've decided to start downloading during this little human experiment. (This American Life, All Songs Considered, and the weekly Best of YouTube -nb: that's a video one, so it doesn't get watched til we're off-the-clock)
I always said I was the type of gal who can't listen to something (tv, music, radio) if I'm writing. And given that 80% of my job is writing reports, I've never even bothered to try. But the thing I'm learning is that I can do CERTAIN parts of the report-writing while listening. For example, I can set up the document, I can do some cut & pasteys from other reports, I can format the thing, I can make charts and tables, etc.... all that stuff, I can actually listen to iTunes in the meantime and boy howdy, does that make all the difference in the world.
Man it's like 2009 is going to be the year of epiphany.
Who'da thought?!
I watched the Grammys (24 hours behind, as everything else on tv here) and was soooooooo happy for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Raising Sand was my Big Musical Discovery for the whole of 2008, and I love them both as much separately as together. AND they played live during the awards. Awesome.
I went running with the Mr. yesterday instead of going to yoga. I need a break from it or something. I just need to WANT to go again. I'm finding it a little on the yawn-side lately. No reason in particular, I'm just letting the whole "avoiding unpleasant things" thing play itself out and see how it goes. Not that yoga was unpleasant. Oh no, on the contrary I love it. I just need to avoid the burnout.
Avoiding situations of potential aggro and stress at all costs is a good strategy. It's been working wonders for the Mr., who has made so many changes to his behaviour in an attempt to bypass all the aggro he managed to find himself in last year. For example: trying to find an auto trader to trade in old car and dealing with the messers = difficult. Money to be made = high potential, but Dickheads to be encountered and messiness to be had = high potential. Whereas: Putting old car in newspaper and missing out on a few bucks but having people come to you = easy. His new strategy is to make life more pleasant by making life easier. Hence, drop the Treasurer gig with the Animal Peeps, and put the car in the newspaper. Move into house in G-village that isn't a total dump in need of major fixing, instead of saving a few bucks moving into a dive (with more slacker overseas landlords) in our Priority 1 neighbourhood. OK I know I'm going back a month now, but it's proving a good strategy. I recommend it. And the new Mudcrutch album. And the Hold Steady album. And Raising Sand.
That is all.
Day 5 - ONLY ONE WEEK OF THIS CRAP DOWN?
1 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 06 February 2009 at 2/06/2009 07:43:00 am.
OK can I just say it's NOT the turning off the internet and letting my online scrabble prowress go to the dogs that is difficult... it's the whole making-sure-to-write-about-it that is the pain in the hole.
But I digress.
Yesterday:
Car - fetched.
Running - begrudgingly run.
Coffee - drunk (along with brownie = eaten).
Dinner - confirmed.
Articles - compiled.
To elaborate, I suppose as the challenge goes: I'm now a driver of the most environmentally friendly car available for purchace in this country. We explored all the options of hybrids (not available here), even attempting to import a Prius from SA or Japan, and that failed as well. There are no mechanics here that know how to maintain or fix them and given the fact that we live in the land of brainless kamikaze drivers, a good mechanic is an imperative. So anyway we got the next best thing. The S40. This is the one that Australia has started giving tax breaks on, if you drive one, because it's diesel technology is so efficient and environmentally conscious. So there you go. I'm a swedish car driver now. AGH!
The running - wasn't good. I blame the fatcakes we ate at coffeetime on tuesday. or something like that. I struggled with 5km, I have no idea why. not cool. oh so not cool. I used to do it in 29mins (before xmas) now it was 34. I need to work on that.
So after I gave my huge nervioso presentation to the DEA yesterday, and after picking up said automobile, The Mr. was so proud of my performance that he agreed to playing hookey from work for awhile so we could enjoy a nice cappuccino and a brownie at our favourite cafe. It was nice. It was also nice to get that thing over with as it had been bogging me down since I found out I would have to do it. I hate defending my work - it's like doing a thesis all over again. BARF! but the thing went really well, and I am really pleased. Even the Director of DEA was really pleased. whew. I deserved that damn cappuccino. And the brownie.
Today -
*Photograph T's canvas hanging up
*Collect photos of dog move for article
*Shop for ipod connection for new car
TOnight we're going out for dinner with the Chinese. To eat chinese. yum. but those chinese guys are crazy. serious. I would elaborate, but my time is UP!
But I digress.
Yesterday:
Car - fetched.
Running - begrudgingly run.
Coffee - drunk (along with brownie = eaten).
Dinner - confirmed.
Articles - compiled.
To elaborate, I suppose as the challenge goes: I'm now a driver of the most environmentally friendly car available for purchace in this country. We explored all the options of hybrids (not available here), even attempting to import a Prius from SA or Japan, and that failed as well. There are no mechanics here that know how to maintain or fix them and given the fact that we live in the land of brainless kamikaze drivers, a good mechanic is an imperative. So anyway we got the next best thing. The S40. This is the one that Australia has started giving tax breaks on, if you drive one, because it's diesel technology is so efficient and environmentally conscious. So there you go. I'm a swedish car driver now. AGH!
The running - wasn't good. I blame the fatcakes we ate at coffeetime on tuesday. or something like that. I struggled with 5km, I have no idea why. not cool. oh so not cool. I used to do it in 29mins (before xmas) now it was 34. I need to work on that.
So after I gave my huge nervioso presentation to the DEA yesterday, and after picking up said automobile, The Mr. was so proud of my performance that he agreed to playing hookey from work for awhile so we could enjoy a nice cappuccino and a brownie at our favourite cafe. It was nice. It was also nice to get that thing over with as it had been bogging me down since I found out I would have to do it. I hate defending my work - it's like doing a thesis all over again. BARF! but the thing went really well, and I am really pleased. Even the Director of DEA was really pleased. whew. I deserved that damn cappuccino. And the brownie.
Today -
*Photograph T's canvas hanging up
*Collect photos of dog move for article
*Shop for ipod connection for new car
TOnight we're going out for dinner with the Chinese. To eat chinese. yum. but those chinese guys are crazy. serious. I would elaborate, but my time is UP!
